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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1408998
This article is part of the Research Topic mHealth and smartphone apps in patient follow-up View all 12 articles

The Paradox of Convenience: How Information Overload in mHealth Apps Leads to Medical Service Overuse

Provisionally accepted
Lingling Zhong Lingling Zhong Junwei Cao Junwei Cao *Fengtao Xue Fengtao Xue
  • School of business, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Mobile health applications (mHealth) have become an indispensable tool in the healthcare industry to provide users with efficient and convenient health services. However, information overload has led to significant information overload problems in mHealth applications, which may further lead to overuse of medical services.Methods: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between information overload and overuse of medical services in mHealth applications through health belief model (HBM). Data were collected from 1494 respondents who were sampled through a simple random approach. A structured questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection from mobile APP users in Guangdong Province between February 4, 2024, and February 20, 2024. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data to investigate the effects of information overload on users' perceived severity, susceptibility, treatment benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, and action cues, which further influence the overuse of health care services.Results: The study found that information overload significantly affected users' perceived severity, susceptibility, treatment benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, and action cues, and subsequently affected overuse of health care services. These results provide valuable insights for mHealth application developers, healthcare providers, and policy makers.Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of effectively managing information delivery in mHealth applications to reduce the risk of overuse of healthcare services. The study not only highlights the dark side of information overload in mHealth applications, but also provides a framework to understand and address the challenges associated with information overload and service overuse in the mhealth context.

    Keywords: mHealth apps, Information overload, overuse of medical services, health belief model, PLS-SEM

    Received: 29 Mar 2024; Accepted: 14 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhong, Cao and Xue. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Junwei Cao, School of business, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, Jiangsu Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.